Ask the Spike

The Lollies

Every year Scholastic run a competition called the Lollies (the Laugh Out Loud awards) to reward the funniest kids book of the year. Scholastic sent me the shortlist and of them my kids picked out Danny McGee Drinks the Sea – an alarming tale about a boy with a very flexible gullet getting carried away… and the lengths that siblings will go not to be outdone.

All the books on there are discounted (you can buy all 4 in each shortlist age category for £9.99); Scholastic also give back 20% of any order to a school or nursery of the shopper’s choice in free books or resources (see: https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/free-books.)

Funnily enough though I was also sent another load of books not on the shortlist and I actually found more gems in there than on the official shortlist.

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Comments

Thanks for these. I get a lot of picture books from the library to keep us going and only buy the real hits (we’ve got many of the classics, anything by Shirley Hughes, Jill Murphy, Judith Kerr etc and they are always the favourites – they particularly love the Large family and Mog, but you need a turnover) It really makes you appreciate a good children’s book as some have actually been difficult to read rhythm-wise, make no sense, are strangely humourless, or oddly sinister. The last two that we’ve had proper giggles over were The Day The Crayons Quit and the follow up.

The ones I really hate to read are the Mister Men. They are really not pleasant to read aloud and I don’t think they’ve stood the test of time but I may be alone in this.

Do you have any good recommendations for chapter books with pictures or similar for 6 year olds that are reading by themselves or to you? My son is reading the Tom Gates series and Horrid Bloody Henry but wouldn’t mind something more exciting than just children being naughty (though he does find that pretty exciting as he’s a big rule follower himself, at school anyway)

Cindy, I agree. The Mr Men books are awful to read and I don’t think my children enjoy them – that’s my excuse for never reading them, anyway. And anything by Shirley Hughes is always a winner with everyone.
A surprise recent hit in our house has been a poetry book called A Great Big Cuddle by Michael Rosen. Most of the poems are complete nonsense but my children find them hilarious and they’re nice to read. Note: my children are little – 2 and 4 – not sure if the book would work so well for older ones.
On a side note it never fails to surprise me how much children love poetry. And books in general. It’s lovely to watch and help them discover the joy of books.

I will look out for it as my daughter is only 3 and my son easygoing. We have a children’s poetry collection some of which is a little beyond them, but I read from it selectively and their understanding is often more sophisticated than I give them credit for. My son likes some Spike Milligan and also some from the R.L Stevenson Children’s Garden of Verse, which I love. They both adored The Owl and The Pussycat read to them as toddlers too. The rhythm is so soothing.

My 6 year old boy has really really enjoyed Roald Dahl. The Twits and Georges Marvellous Medicine are actually for a younger reader. Also, in a variant of Horrid-sodding-Henry, we have some Dirty Bertie chapter books which are just a little bit more palatable.

Baby Aliens got my Teacher by Pamela Butchart and her other two books were a resounding success, though I didn’t enjoy them as much. The big hit was by Jonny Duddle who has picture books and chapter books. And we have just finished A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig which would have been more appropriate in the lead-up to Christmas but really lovely and quite exciting to even think about Christmas at this time of year.

Thanks Nicola I will look those authors up. We’ve read a couple of the younger Dahl ones together though he wasn’t hugely taken with them (quite sensitive) he might like reading them for himself now. I can’t personally stomach Dirty Bertie but I know he’s had them read at school and enjoyed them and it’s not about me…!

The Mr Men books are written in horrible, awkward English. I don’t remember that from my childhood! And they’re a bit mean. If Mr Grumpy wants to be grumpy then that’s up to him, I don’t think Mr Happy and Mr Tickle ganging up on him and bullying him is anything to be celebrated. Mr Happy is an arse.
Elaine x

High-five Elaine and ha ha at your withering dismissal of Mr Happy. And don’t get me started on Mr Funny and his daisy sandwiches. What a comic genius. Better than the Tank Engine originals where you get bricked up in a tunnel for life for a minor transgression though I suppose.